OCR読み取り結果

Return to Tülküchköl.

148 FROM KHOTAN TO LOP [Chap. IV

I returned to Tülküch-köl on December 18th in the same perfectly clear and calm weather, which, combined with temperatures falling as low as 42 degrees F. below freezing-point, had prevailed all through my visit and had allowed the snowy range far away to the south to be sighted daily from the ruins. Proceeding by the track that I had followed on my previous visits, I could now understand why the belt of high tamarisk-cones that extends south of the ancient bridge gives way, after less than two miles, to level ground covered with living forest. While the ancient terminal bed of the river with its rows of dead Toghraks and its banks screened by tamarisk-bound sand ridges trends away to the west, the ground reached by the termination of the deep Yar striking due north of Darya-tilgan had probably continued to receive moisture, either by floods or underground drainage close to the surface, ever since that ancient terminal bed had ceased to carry water. It is likely enough that what was a mere overflow channel in the early centuries of our era became the terminal bed of the dying river after the ancient settlement had ceased to exist. This would afford an explanation of the striking change in scenery that meets the eye when the traveller passes from the desolation of the dead oasis into the luxuriant forest that extends along the banks of the ` Yar ' and approaches its southernmost ruins.

N. c6. Bronze buckle with iron tongue and rivet. Loop of attachment for buckle is in form of circular plate, hollowed, and with chamfered edges, having at one side a projecting strip which is doubled backwards to form hinge for buckle and tongue, and clamping piece for attachment to leather or other material. Ring of buckle,

N. og. Misc. glass, paste, and shell frs., including ten beads of glass, paste and shell ; three frs. of glass beads ; three lumps of dark grey paste (not drilled) ; one small seed, and two small frs. of strip bronze.